Fujimori's Daughter Polishes Her Jailed Father's Image on the Road to Congress in Peru

By JUAN FORERO

Published: April 9, 2006

The candidate has a winning smile, a degree from Boston University, and a new American husband whose aw-shucks demeanor and boyish good looks go over well in Peru. But she is only 30 and has never held elective office.

Still, with the last name Fujimori, as in Alberto Fujimori, the former strongman who ruled Peru with an iron hand, the candidate, Keiko Fujimori, is very likely to do more than win a seat in Congress in Sunday's general election.

Polls show that she may draw more votes than any of the other 2,600 candidates running for the 120 seats. That would ensure that a Fujimori presides over the swearing in of fellow members of Congress and whoever is elected president.

''I think that a great part of the support is because I'm the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, and obviously I'm the recipient of the love and gratitude that people have for my father,'' Ms. Fujimori, dressed in the orange polo shirt of her party, the Alliance for the Future, said in an interview shortly after midnight Thursday.

Many in Peru remember Mr. Fujimori with disdain for the corruption and scandal that ended his 10-year rule in 2000, and sent him fleeing to his ancestral homeland, Japan.

But some influential supporters remain faithful, recalling how he delivered largess and security, opened schools and roads and crushed two rebel movements. With their help, Mr. Fujimori even planned a comeback, flying to neighboring Chile in November.

But Chilean authorities detained him, and Peru is now seeking his extradition, accusing him of hijacking democracy and directing death squads during an administration prosecutors call a quasi dictatorship steeped in graft and rights abuses. For now, he remains in detention in Chile.

His daughter's party, which is fielding candidates for president and Congress and may become the fourth-largest party in Peru, is a fusion of pro-Fujimori movements intended to place Fujimoristas, as they are known, in Congress -- and to help whitewash Mr. Fujimori's image. In fact, her candidacy, she said, was his idea.

In the interview, she said Mr. Fujimori proposed the idea when she and her husband, Mark Villanella, a former wrestler from New Jersey who has worked as an I.B.M. consultant, visited him in Chile in November.

Ms. Fujimori recalled that she was on the verge of finishing her master's degree in business at Columbia and planning on a comfortable life in New York. ''The hard part,'' she said, ''was telling Mark's parents.''

Ms. Fujimori said she was not worried about her lack of experience in office, because she assumed the role of first lady at 19, after her parents divorced. That took her across Peru, where she dispensed aid to poor mothers and children, making her something of an Evita Per?ike figure in this vast Andean country.

''I was at my father's side as first lady for six years,'' she said. ''I've been in power, and I know it's at times lonely. But I also know power well used can change many people's lives.''

She blames Vladimiro Montesinos, the disgraced former spy chief now jailed outside Lima, for the corruption that swirled around her father.

A special team of prosecutors investigating Fujimori-era crimes says Mr. Montesinos has outlined the funneling of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mr. Fujimori's children, too. But Ms. Fujimori denies any corruption herself, noting that charges against her were dropped.

On Wednesday night, there was plenty of evidence that at least some Peruvians believe her. She was among the star attractions of a closing rally here in Lima for candidates of the Alliance for the Future.

At the rally, in the working-class San Juan de Lurigancho district, people saw Ms. Fujimori and other pro-Fujimori candidates -- including former Congresswoman Martha Ch?z, who is running for president, and Mr. Fujimori's brother, Santiago, her running mate -- as links to a better past.

''Fujimori was the one who came to see us, who visited every state and gave us loans to buy our houses,'' said Esther Laines, 50, who had pushed to the front of the crowd for a closer look at Ms. Fujimori. ''It's Fujimori who gave us schools, highways and social security.''

The event was more variety show than political rally, featuring mariachis, dancing girls and a master of ceremonies, Germ?Guevara, who repeatedly boomed, ''Chino, Chino, Chino.'' The nickname is a reference to Mr. Fujimori's Asian ancestry. Speaker after speaker lauded Mr. Fujimori's accomplishments, including his dissolution of Congress in 1992, a move denounced worldwide.

A highlight was the appearance of Satomi Kataoka, 40, who became Mr. Fujimori's girlfriend during his exile in Japan. She announced through an interpreter that she and Mr. Fujimori had married. The crowd went wild.

Alliance candidates, polls show, are likely to do well on Sunday. Ms. Fujimori is expected to get 14 percent of the vote, and her colleagues may win as many as 15 seats in Congress, a healthy bloc in the increasingly splintered legislature.

''The fact that they can get between 12 and 15 seats could give them weight,'' said Santiago Pedraglio, a member of a government anticorruption commission set up after Mr. Fujimori's fall. ''The principal objective that they have is to fight for Fujimori's liberty if he is extradited.''

Ms. Fujimori's followers overlook Mr. Pedraglio's concerns and instead focus on the former first lady's good works. They recount how she visited the poorest villages with her father. And, of course, they cannot forget the famous bloodline.

''She's Fujimori's daughter so she's a good woman and she'll fight for the people,'' said Frida Huaman, 47, a local community leader who waited hours to get a glimpse of her idol.

Ms. Fujimori exudes endless enthusiasm, but she admits that holding office in a country where politics is all bare knuckles can be tough.

Referring to her parents' breakup -- her mother, Susana Higuchi, publicly accused Mr. Fujimori of being a corrupt tyrant -- Ms. Fujimori said she and Mr. Villanella would be ''much more careful in taking care and strengthening our relationship.'' Mr. Villanella accompanies his wife onstage throughout the country and, in a thick American accent, says in Spanish, ''I vote for my love, I vote for Peru.''

As she campaigns, Ms. Fujimori seems clear about her principal goal: making sure that her father does not languish in jail.

''I know my father will be exonerated,'' she said. ''He will return to Peru, and he will return through the front door.''

Photo: Keiko Fujimori, right, and Satomi Kataoka, her stepmother, in Lima. (Photo by Ana Cecilia Gonzales Vigil for The New York Times)